Set against a muted, thinly painted background, the red shirt of the title stands out all the more strongly in this strikingly posed portrait. Although undated, the sitter’s hat and the width of her sleeves suggest that it dates to the late 1950s.

Tolansky was born in Vienna and studied at the prestigious Reimann-Schule and the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Following the rise of Nazism in Europe, she moved to England in 1933 and continued her studies at Manchester Municipal School. After the end of the Second World War, she also studied at Hammersmith School of Art. She exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and the New English Art Club. The Mall Galleries held a major retrospective of her work in 1979. She favoured portraiture (particularly of women), nudes, elaborate still lifes and flower pieces.